Thinking that you were dead
by bhut
Summary: An AU of the third season. Helen does not re-start her feud with the ARC at the start of the third season, and everything changes.


**Thinking that you were dead**

_Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™._

The movers were finally gone and so were their stares. The view from her apartment's window revealing London's cityscape in early winter in all of its grey glory. Jenny Lewis sighed and very firmly not took a look in a mirror – she really didn't want to be surprised either for better or for worse. Instead, she straightened the folds in her blouse, took a deep breath, put on her wig and went into the corridor. "Show time," she said quietly, to herself.

After Nick's death, Jenny did change a lot, though mostly due to the obvious reasons. Still, she did move to a new place, where no one knew about her or her past, and the superintendent did say that so far there was only one other tenant living on her floor (this was a new building). Therefore, she might as well go out and risk it, or all of these weeks of therapy would go to waste.

Steeling herself, Jenny went into the corridor and knocked on the door opposing hers. Immediately, a very familiar voice spoke – "Sarah, is that you? Wait a second, let me open up" - followed by the opening of the door. Only, because it wasn't Sarah, but Jenny, the result was not quite what either of them had expected and as such there was a lot of staring in silence, until Jenny broke it.

"Uh, Helen? I'm not Sarah – I'm Jenny. Jenny Lewis. I'm sure you remember me," Jenny said in a voice that just wouldn't hold steady under Helen's rather unbelieving glare. For once in her life, Jenny was able to startle the other woman, and for once in her life, she would rather not. "I'm, uh, your new neighbour from across the hall, and just wanted to say hi. But since you're obviously not happy to see me-"

"No, the feeling's more ambiguous-"

"-so I'll just go back."

Helen pinched her nose. "No, come on in. We are neighbours, after all, now... unless Nick'll object. How is he, by the way?"

There was a pause, and Jenny felt that she was crying, no matter how much it hurt. "Nick," she said, "Nick... Nick is gone. An electric fire broke out...and he's gone." Her legs buckled, and she felt, rather than realized, that she was dragged inside...

...Jenny came to her senses because of a smell. It was a rather nice smell, and it took her several moments to recognize it – it was the smell of rye whiskey and lemon. Carefully, she opened her eyes, and saw Helen begin pour some of it down her throat. Of course, Jenny's actions had startled Helen, again (that's twice in one day, not that Jenny was counting) and so the whiskey almost went down the wrong throat. Instead, Jenny spat it out and the drink ended up on her blouse instead.

"So, Miss Lewis, glad to see that you're conscious once again," Helen said, trying to sound gentle, but getting a more mixed result instead. "Care to share what has happened?"

"It was almost half a year since you disappeared and Stephen died," Jenny said quietly. "For a while, things were fine. Then a time anomaly opened in a hospital and in came some di, some di-things..."

"Di-things?" Helen said incredulously. "Dimetrodon? Dimorphodon? Dicynodons?"

"Yes! The latter! Rather small beasts, like big marmots or ground squirrels, but obviously reptilian. We managed to send them all back, but two got left behind. We brought them to the ARC; they got out, got caught in the wiring or someplace similar, and started a fire. The Centre...wasn't built to handle a fire all that well, apparently, and some people got caught."

"Including you."

"Yes. But I... I survived – with mostly skin burns. Nick didn't."

Silence fell, as neither woman quite knew what to say to the other, until Jenny finally broke it. "So what about you? I see that you're doing... okay?"

"I just finished my first down-payment on this place," Helen said, wryly. "Since this is my first stable place of living since I left Nick, doing okay is probably the right description here."

"And you don't miss time travelling?"

"Jenny," Helen said gently, but her smile was anything but, "I was never a part of the ARC, remember? That was Leek. I can time travel without your Centre's volition," she paused. "You're not going to tell it to Lester, are you?"

"Not likely," Jenny's own smile was bitter. "I'm on a disability leave and there was a strong hint that I should start looking for a new job. You wouldn't advise me where to get one, would you?"

"I ended up doing artwork for the British museum," Helen said with some noticeable pride in her voice. "I may not be a Charles Knight... but I had lot of practice with my hobby and a very thick skin after dealing with some of Nick's former co-workers in the academic world. That helps too."

"How exactly did you do that?" Jenny said, incredulously.

"Some time after I returned to London, I've ran into Ms. Sarah Page. She was working in the British museum already, but was on the outs due to some incident. I offered one of my sketches to cheer her up; she took one good look and got me a try-out at the museum for some bigger artwork. One thing led to another – _slowly_ – and, well, nowadays, I am part of the museum's staff, more or less. It's an interesting life, and with my personal time management... well, I don't have grounds to complain."

"Sarah Page," Jenny said slowly. "I think I remember her – she helped us to capture this prehistoric crocodile, forgot what its' scientific name was. Lester was thinking about bringing her into the fold, but his negotiations with the museum's management got stalled, and then there was the fire, so it all came apart."

"Ah yes, Sarah mentioned it in the past," Helen nodded sagely. "Museums are just like universities and other places of higher learning – if having you on staff is advantageous, they'll keep you, if not – then good-bye."

Something in her voice told Jenny not press it any further, not that she had a chance, because there was a knock on the door. "Come in," Helen said, shifting in her seat. "The door's unlocked."

Immediately, the door slid open, and in came Sarah, followed by Becker. "Helen, hi-" Sarah said cheerfully and stopped, eyeing Jenny. "Um, do I know you?"

"I'm Jenny Lewis," Jenny said, feeling rather self-conscious once again. Odd, how talking with Helen made her forget it. Until now, she only felt like her old self with Connor and Abby – but Connor and Abby had their own personal problems nowadays... "I used to work at the same place as Becker? Sorry about Lester sacking you, by the way."

Becker looked at her oddly. "You heard this from Connor or Abby, right? I wasn't sacked by Lester; I was rather dismissed by his superiors. Between the fire and the recent mess with the ITV, the vote of confidence in Lester's capabilities fell down – the government just doesn't trust him anymore, they got some woman, Christine Johnston, in his stead, and I got downsized in the process."

"So where are you now?" Jenny asked, quietly.

"I'm, uh, with the British museum's security these days," Becker added, rather quietly himself. "It's kind of a long story, starting with me asking Sarah on a date, and progressing from there..."

"Anyways," Sarah said with a slight blush, "we were thinking of taking Helen out to celebrate – there's a talk of promotions in the air-"

"Yeah, I understand," Jenny said quietly. "I'll, uh, go back to my place now. Thanks for the chat, Helen-"

Helen exchanged a look with the other two. "Jenny," she said carefully, "I don't like you very much, Becker doesn't know you all that well, and Sarah almost doesn't know you at all, but you want to come with us? Clearly, you need to meet some new people and get a new shift in life, because you need it."

"You could come along if you want to," Sarah nodded in agreement. "We promise not to make you feel like a fourth wheel."

Jenny nodded. "Thank you," she said, gratefully. To her embarrassment she felt like tearing up. "Can I just go and change?"

Sarah nodded, still smiling warmly, and for the first time since leaving the hospital, Jenny felt that her life was changing for the better; maybe she won't be alone anymore. Even the landscape outside didn't look so forbidden anymore – and all because of Helen Cutter, the woman whom Jenny thought was dead for so long.

End


End file.
